1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a washer disinfector that washes and disinfects endoscopes for medical use (hereinafter referred to as an “endoscope washer disinfector”) and, in particular, to an endoscope washer disinfector equipped with a washing disinfecting bath and automatically washes and disinfects an endoscope accommodated within the washing disinfecting bath.
2. Related Art
Medical endoscopes have now grown into indispensable modalities for inspection and treatment of patients' body cavities. Once such an endoscope is used, the outer surface of the insertion tube inserted into a body cavity as well as the insides of various ducts, such as the air-supply water-supply duct, suction duct, forward water-supply duct, and/or therapeutic duct, of the endoscope are polluted with waste materials. Hence it is necessary that the outer surface of a used endoscope and the insides of each duct thereof are always washed and disinfected.
In some cases, the washing and disinfection is performed by hand, but it is usual to use an endoscope washer disinfector, i.e., an apparatus for washing and disinfecting endoscopes. For using such an endoscope washer disinfector, a used endoscope is accommodated into a washing disinfecting bath, which is within the main body of this endoscope washer disinfector, and positionally fixed therein. For washing inside the ducts of the endoscope, the mouth rings of the ducts, which are open to the outside, are connected to various nozzles within the washer disinfector via tubes. The nozzles, which are for supplying various kinds of fluid and gas necessary for washing and disinfection, are arranged as part of a supply unit attached to the washing disinfecting bath. The supply unit is arranged to receive the various kinds of fluid and gas from containers.
The washing disinfecting bath is then closed by a lid member attached thereto, before a start switch is set “on” for starting the processes of washing and disinfection. In response to this, the washer disinfector performs a water leakage check to confirm whether the endoscope has a water leakage. If there is no water leakage, processes including a washing step, a rinsing step, a disinfecting step, and a drying step are performed in sequence.
In this way, the endoscope washer disinfector is known which has the capability of washing and disinfecting the insides of the ducts as well as the outer surface of the endoscope. However, for washing and disinfecting the insides of the ducts, it is necessary to connect by hand the fluid supply nozzle to each mouth ring of the ducts using tubes. This connection work of the tubes is inconvenient for operators.
There is also known an endoscope washer disinfector which is able to eliminate the user's work in connecting the tubes. This washer disinfector is equipped with a fluid supply unit with fluid supply nozzles to be connected automatically to the mouth rings of the ducts of an endoscope. In this unit, however, it is necessary to position, with high accuracy, the endoscope in the washing disinfecting bath. Without such high accuracy, the automatic connection cannot be performed, because the relative positions between the supply nozzles and the mouth rings deviate from the correct ones. This results having to reset the endoscope in the washing disinfecting bath, thus decreasing the efficiency of the process.
To remove such inconveniences, there is also known an endoscope washer disinfector disclosed by Japanese Patent Application Publication (Laid-open) No. 2006-95084. In this washer disinfector, circular grooves formed on the insertion tube and manipulating device of an endoscope are engaged with support members standing up from the washing disinfecting bath. This allows the respective mouth rings to be positioned relative to the supply nozzles with precision. Hence the endoscope can be accommodated at the right position in the bath.
However, the endoscope washer disinfector according to the foregoing publication is also confronted with another difficulty. Once an endoscope is used for an examination and/or a treatment, it is normal that the endoscope is subjected to adhesion of contamination from body fluid, blood, and others. It is thus necessary to prevent the contamination from spreading to personnel and surroundings during the delivery of endoscopes to the washer disinfector. Thus, it is usual that a used endoscope is mounted on a dedicated tray and delivered to the washer disinfector.
When being delivered to the washer disinfector using the tray, the used endoscope is then accommodated into the washing disinfecting bath in one of two ways. One way is to accommodate the endoscope using the engagement mechanism described in Japanese Patent Application Publication (Laid-open) No, 2006-95084. The other way is to make use of the tray itself. That is, with the endoscope kept mounted on the tray, the tray is loaded into the washing disinfecting bath. This kind of endoscope washer disinfector is known as well.
Of course, even when a dedicated tray is used, it is absolutely necessary to accurately position the mouth rings of the endoscope ducts relative to the fluid supply nozzles. Specifically, a used endoscope should be set accurately in position on the tray, and the tray should be set accurately within the washing disinfecting bath.
It is therefore understood that accurately positioning an endoscope (i.e., its ducts) relative to the fluid supply nozzles needs a two-stage positioning procedure. One stage is positioning between the endoscope and the tray, while the other stage is positioning between the tray and the washing disinfecting bath. Each positioning should be accurate. If any one of the two-stage positioning procedures results in poor accuracy, it is difficult to accurately position the endoscope ducts relative to the fluid supply nozzles. Therefore, using the tray is inferior in positioning accuracy to the case where an endoscope is directly mounted in the bath.